On Beauty
From the travel journal. This isn't actually the "brilliant" piece that I was thinking of, but the piece I was thinking of was actually quite sentimental, cliche, and well....dumb. This one, while not exactly profound, is at least entertaining. And yes, it is slightly tongue in cheek. It was written in Dublin after having met a beautiful woman....
"A beautiful woman is worth waiting to see, even if only a moment's vision answers an hour's passing. Waiting for beauty has the distinct pleasure of keeping one's mind fixed on higher things for great lengths of time without danger of distraction, for beauty is a selfish and ever demanding Queen, and Hope, attendant upon all time passed in expectation, is her enforcer."
posted by windmilltilter at 8:45 PM
3 Comments:
Wait a second, is this 'hope' with a big or small 'h'? I guess I'm looking back to Grave's poem about the birdcatcher...if he is supposed to 'love without hope', is it valid to assume he can hope just until she (squire's daughter/Dublin woman) comes into view? If hope must attend beauty, why may not it also attend the beholder? It just seemed like the beauty referred to in the first post had little to do with hope, and the beauty in this one seems dependent upon it. What's your verdict?
8:45 AM
Annie has caught me up on something I hadn't given any thought to, namely, coherence. Well, here goes nothing:I'd say in my latest entry, I claimed that Hope was a servant of Beauty, whose function was to strong arm us human "beholders" into her rightful appreciation. However, there are those who do not need to be strong armed-those who love. Love, ( I think I can claim this) desires to see beauty for its own sake and needs no other inducement, (like expectation of returned affections). Did that answer it?
11:21 AM
So it is hope with a small 'h'. If I've got this right, this kind of hope implies a conditional love, and serves as a sort of aid towards a perfect appreciation of beauty - or an unconditional love. Once this is obtained, it sounds like hope is no longer needed. However, now it's starting to sound like hope with a big 'h'. And is it really necessary to twist the beholder's arm to love what is beautiful?
12:58 PM
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